Fail • Hacker News Board

Re: Fail

#11

Post by cityzen » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 4:58 PM UTC

treyfitty wrote: post #2

On the topic of failure, I’ve failed to pass facebook’s Data Science interviews 4 times in 5 years. I’ve been rejected at every level now (phone screen to the “more signal” round). At what point do I give up? Each time I interview, it ends up with me dedicating roughly a week to prepare, and a week recovering from the rejection.

Honest question, what's the appeal of working at a place like Facebook these days? It seems like a pretty well known fact that they're a horrible company in terms of their "product" (advertising and data mining). Is it money and experience? Being in my 40's with 2 young kids I don't think I could ever bring myself to contribute to a company like that.

Re: Fail

#12

Post by drc0 » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 5:08 PM UTC

what is this?

Re: Fail

#13

Post by gumby » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 5:46 PM UTC

pnenp wrote: post #3

treyfitty wrote: post #2

On the topic of failure, I’ve failed to pass facebook’s Data Science interviews 4 times in 5 years. I’ve been rejected at every level now (phone screen to the “more signal” round). At what point do I give up? Each time I interview, it ends up with me dedicating roughly a week to prepare, and a week recovering from the rejection.

I'm still reeling from being rejected by Google years ago. Inspiring to see you keep trying. Keep it up!

If it makes you feel any better my googler friends complain that really great candidates they liked or even tried to bring in got rejected while people who get the thumbs down seem to get in.

It seems that internally Google's hiring process is universally described as "random".

Re: Fail

#14

Post by dufferzafar » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 7:33 PM UTC

natch wrote: post #7

While it's important for everyone to learn that thriving past failure is an essential life skill, this post somehow came off more as a humblebrag as I read it. These are "failures" in some sense, but very high status ones. Not looking forward to the raft of copycat humblebrag posts this might inspire.

Um, yeah part of me felt so too, but I was thinking, how else could the guy have phrased it? I mean he's at CMU in a masters program, so to us all his failures feel big, but I don't think that's how he thinks about them. To him, they're all just failures. Nothing more, really.

Re: Fail

#15

Post by harshgupta » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 10:04 PM UTC

I am pretty sold on the idea that failure of ambition = good, failure of sloth = bad. This post seems to be in line with that.

Re: Fail

#16

Post by natch » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 10:27 PM UTC

dufferzafar wrote: post #14

natch wrote: post #7

While it's important for everyone to learn that thriving past failure is an essential life skill, this post somehow came off more as a humblebrag as I read it. These are "failures" in some sense, but very high status ones. Not looking forward to the raft of copycat humblebrag posts this might inspire.

Um, yeah part of me felt so too, but I was thinking, how else could the guy have phrased it? I mean he's at CMU in a masters program, so to us all his failures feel big, but I don't think that's how he thinks about them. To him, they're all just failures. Nothing more, really.

Sure, but rest assured if he’s human, he has other, less impressive, failures that aren’t shown. This list is carefully curated. And deliberately published. Some other options available to him, since you were wondering, would be a) refrain from posting it; b) use non-humblebrag items to make the supposed point just as effectively; c) make the point without a list; d) use known examples from history. These are all perfectly valid. If you think option a is bad, there are still options b, c, and d. And others I haven’t thought of.

However, the author gets to decide how to write their post. That’s their right, even if it annoys me. But I’m kind of surprised you think there were no other options.

Re: Fail

#17

Post by jazzyjackson » Sun, Sep 02, 2018, 1:31 AM UTC

cityzen wrote: post #11

treyfitty wrote: post #2

On the topic of failure, I’ve failed to pass facebook’s Data Science interviews 4 times in 5 years. I’ve been rejected at every level now (phone screen to the “more signal” round). At what point do I give up? Each time I interview, it ends up with me dedicating roughly a week to prepare, and a week recovering from the rejection.

Honest question, what's the appeal of working at a place like Facebook these days? It seems like a pretty well known fact that they're a horrible company in terms of their "product" (advertising and data mining). Is it money and experience? Being in my 40's with 2 young kids I don't think I could ever bring myself to contribute to a company like that.

I've thought about this a lot vis a vis "What kind of company do I want to work for."

Despite not being proud of the product, I think I would still be excited to work with/learn from other programmers that are at the top of their field.

For a few years at least :)

Re: Fail

#18

Post by pnenp » Sun, Sep 02, 2018, 7:41 AM UTC

gumby wrote: post #13

pnenp wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still reeling from being rejected by Google years ago. Inspiring to see you keep trying. Keep it up!

If it makes you feel any better my googler friends complain that really great candidates they liked or even tried to bring in got rejected while people who get the thumbs down seem to get in. It seems that internally Google's hiring process is universally described as "random".

Thanks :}

Re: Fail

#19

Post by EduardoBautista » Sun, Sep 02, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

cityzen wrote: post #11

treyfitty wrote: post #2

On the topic of failure, I’ve failed to pass facebook’s Data Science interviews 4 times in 5 years. I’ve been rejected at every level now (phone screen to the “more signal” round). At what point do I give up? Each time I interview, it ends up with me dedicating roughly a week to prepare, and a week recovering from the rejection.

Honest question, what's the appeal of working at a place like Facebook these days? It seems like a pretty well known fact that they're a horrible company in terms of their "product" (advertising and data mining). Is it money and experience? Being in my 40's with 2 young kids I don't think I could ever bring myself to contribute to a company like that.

I will be honest, I like money. Money is pretty much the biggest motivator I have now to get better at my job. The desire to be rich is what keeps the SV boom alive.

Facebook pays well.

Re: Fail

#20

Post by iforgotpassword » Sun, Sep 02, 2018, 5:38 PM UTC

jazzyjackson wrote: post #17

cityzen wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question, what's the appeal of working at a place like Facebook these days? It seems like a pretty well known fact that they're a horrible company in terms of their "product" (advertising and data mining). Is it money and experience? Being in my 40's with 2 young kids I don't think I could ever bring myself to contribute to a company like that.

I've thought about this a lot vis a vis "What kind of company do I want to work for." Despite not being proud of the product, I think I would still be excited to work with/learn from other programmers that are at the top of their field. For a few years at least :)

Working at a company that makes software for hacking and spying on people that sells to oppressive governments sounds pretty exciting and challenging too. Where do you draw the line?